Does Your Colon Need Cleaning? 5 Things You Should Know

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Cleaning out the colon is sometimes necessary— for example,
before a medical procedure, such as a colonoscopy. But some
people do it in the belief that the process will rid their colons
of excess toxins that have accumulated over time from the foods
they eat, the air they breathe, the water they drink and the
lifestyles they lead.

Colon-cleansing enthusiasts believe that periodically
cleaning from the inside out removes waste stuck to the colon
walls. This waste buildup also supposedly produces toxins that
enter the blood and may be slowly poisoning people, contributing
to a variety of symptoms — fatigue, bloating, irritated skin and
weight gain — and health problems, from depression and allergies
to arthritis and cancer.

Cleansing proponents promote two ways to clean the colon. One
method involves taking bowel-clearing laxatives, powders or
supplements; using enemas; or drinking herbal teas topurportedly
release colon waste and discharge toxins. But using this method
might feel more like frequently running to the bathroom with
diarrhea.

A second method is called colonic irrigation or colon
hydrotherapy, in which a practitioner flushes out the colon by
sending gallons of water into the body through a tube inserted
into a person's rectum. This procedure can cost about $80 to $100
per session.

Medical professionals say that the body comes well equipped with
its own built-in mechanisms to eliminate harmful substances: the
liver and kidneys. In fact, colon cleansing that is done to help
remove toxins is an unnecessary and potentially dangerous
practice, especially colon hydrotherapy.

"Every week, someone asks me whether colon cleansing is safe and
whether a person should be doing it," said Dr. Jacqueline Wolf, a
gastroenterologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in
Boston and the author of "A Woman's Guide to a Healthy Stomach"
(Harlequin, 2011).

Wolf said people's curiosity about cleansing possibly stems from
the idea that the bowel is a dirty place, and that getting rid of
waste is a good idea. She said she usually doesn't recommend
colon hydrotherapy, but has suggested it for a few people to use
as
colonoscopy preparation when traditional methods have failed.
She's also recommended it for patients who had severe
constipation, before there were strong drugs that could help
remedy this problem.

"We don't know enough about colon cleansing to know the real
truth," Wolf told Live Science. "It's an area we should learn
more about."

Wolf outlined some of the potential side effects and dangers of
colon cleansing methods.

1. Colon cleansing can cause side effects.

"We don't have real data on either the healthy or unhealthy side
effects from cleansing methods," Wolf said. Most of the known
side effects come from case reports described in the medical
literature and not from research studies, of which there are few.

Colon cleansing with laxatives, herbal formulations or enemas
might increase a person's risk of becoming dehydrated if the
individual does not drink enough fluids, Wolf said.

A review study published in 2001 in the American Journal of
Gastroenterology concluded that there were no rigorous studies to
support the practice of colon cleansing as a way of improving or
promoting general health.

And because cleansing products and methods rarely name the
specific toxins they supposedly remove from the body, there's
been no research measuring how effective cleansing practices may
be at actually eliminating these substances, or demonstrating the
health benefits of removing them, Wolf said.

3. Cleansing is not an effective strategy for weight
loss.

A person who does a cleanse may initially lose a few pounds, but
that is a temporary loss, resulting from the removal of water
weight and stool, and not from a permanent loss of fat. Although
it could be motivating to see results on the scale for a few
days, cleansing is not a long-term solution to a weight problem,
Wolf said. [ 5
Experts Answer: Is There Such Thing as a Healthy Juice
Cleanse? ]

4. Colon cleansing and colonic irrigation are not safe
for everyone.

Wolf said she would worry about people with kidney disease or
heart problems trying colon cleanses, because these individuals
already have trouble maintaining fluid balance in their bodies,
and the electrolyte shifts could be an issue. She said she would
also tell people with gastrointestinal problems, such as Crohn's
disease (a condition involving inflammation in the GI tract),
ulcerative
colitis (which involves inflammation in the large intestine),
and recurrent diverticulitis (in which a person develops inflamed
pouches in the wall of the colon) to avoid colonics.

Colon hydrotherapy is also risky for people with connective
tissue disorders, such as Marfan syndrome or Ehlers-Danlos
syndrome, because of the possible risk of a puncturing a hole in
the bowel, as well as anyone who had prior colon surgery or
severe hemorrhoids.

Pregnant and breast-feeding women should also steer clear of
colon cleanses.

"A colon cleanse would never get rid of all the bacteria, but
research is increasingly finding that a lot of bacteria in the
colon is very healthy," Wolf said. Some of the good colon
bacteria play a role inkeeping bad bacteria at bay.

Scientists don't know if colon cleanses and colon hydrotherapy
disrupt the bacteria in the colon or cause an imbalance in the
microbiome, Wolf said. "It hasn't been studied," she said.